Two graduate students in BYU’s Department of Biology have earned prestigious, peer-reviewed grants from the National Geographic Society. They’ll use the funding to support research expeditions to Central and South America.

A team of students from Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, won the top prize ($10,000) in a food development competition. Their winning food is a heat-and-serve cheese-based appetizer called Cheese Squared.

BYU student Heather Finch approached the lab with all the tools she needed to analyze the Black Fingers of Death. She slowly lifted the container’s lid and found, as expected, the fingers had choked all the life out of their host.

The sound of pans clattering, liquid hitting a hot pan and loud voices echoing off the tiled floor sounds like an episode of “Top Chef.” The menu, too, with risotto, orange glazed pork chops and french onion soup, is high class. But that is typical of what students see and hear as they pass by the Pendulum Court Cafe in the Eyring Science Center.

Josh LeMonte, a BYU graduate in environmental science, has been awarded a prestigious Science, Mathematics and Research for Transformation (SMART) Scholarship at the University of Delaware where he is a first-year doctoral student.